MVD to act tough, many licences to be suspended

Kochi: With state govt planning to introduce a strong measure of suspending licences of traffic rule violators, hundreds of motorists will face licence suspension per month in Ernakulam.

Enforcement officials in Ernakulam will soon start issuing notices to repeated traffic rule offenders from Monday.“We will start issuing notices to traffic rule violators from Monday. We have prepared a list of offenders, who violated rules more than five times. Hundreds will face driving licence suspension in the district,” said an official.State transport commissioner recently directed motor vehicles department (MVD) officials to strictly implement 13 traffic rules under MV Act, and licence suspension of bike riders was one of them.Most traffic rule violations booked in Ernakulam are for riding two-wheelers without wearing a helmet. Violators in the district are booked when AI-equipped cameras capture their images and also by officials on field inspection.Field inspectors book around 6,500 traffic violations per month in Ernakulam. Of them, around 2,000 are for helmet-related violations. “The highest number of violations are captured by AI cameras, with 17,000 to 22,000 challans issued per month.

Of them, 8,000 to 10,000 challans are related to helmets,” said an MVD official.There are 64 AI cameras installed along highways in rural areas of Ernakulam.When the directive is enforced, officials must first issue a challan to the rider and hear them before suspending their licence for three months. The rider must undergo a mandatory training class too before his licence validity is restored. For this, the department will need more manpower.The transport commissioner’s directive is in the wake of violations regarding helmets continuing unabated.“Compared to developed countries, where commuters mostly use cars and public transport, we Indians mostly use two-wheeler vehicles for transportation. Hence, most accident deaths in the country are reported among two-wheeler riders. One of the reasons is not wearing a helmet. So strong measures are envisaged in motor vehicle rules for public safety. If we don't enforce rules, no one is going to follow them. The problem is with people’s attitude towards rules,” said the official.Over 26,880 two-wheelers were involved in road accidents in the district between 2018 and 2022, with most accidents taking place between 6pm and 10pm. Ernakulam witnesses the highest number of road accidents in the state.